Christelle  Wood

Christelle Wood

Director

Christelle Wood is a Director in our Corporate & Commercial practice. She holds BA Law, LLB and LLM degrees from the University of Johannesburg (all of which were obtained cum laude).   

Christelle specialises in finance transactions with a particular focus on preference share funding transactions, acting for both borrowers and lenders. She also has experience in mergers and acquisitions, private equity and general corporate and commercial law matters.

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Christelle joined Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr as a Candidate Attorney in 2014. In 2016 she was appointed as an Associate and admitted as an attorney and notary public of the High Court of South Africa. Christelle was promoted to Senior Associate in 2019. Christelle was appointed Director in 2022.

Some of the noteworthy transactions in which Christelle has been involved include the following:

  • the establishment of the FirstRand Bank Limited ZAR5,000,000,000 Preference Share Programme in September 2019;
  • the establishment of the RMH Asset Holding Company Proprietary Limited ZAR7,500,000,000 Preference Share Programme in September 2019;
  • the issue of unlisted fixed rate preference shares to FirstRand Bank Limited (acting through its Rand Merchant Bank division) and another local financial institution (in aggregate amounting to ZAR1,750,000,000), in October 2019, under the RMH Asset Holding Company Proprietary Limited ZAR7,500,000,000 Preference Share Programme;
  • the issue of unlisted floating rate notes to FirstRand Bank Limited (acting through its Rand Merchant Bank division) and other local financial institutions (in aggregate amounting to ZAR2,501,000,000), between February 2018 and March 2020, under the RMH Treasury Company Limited ZAR15,000,000,000 Domestic Medium Term Note and Preference Share Programme;
  • the issue of unlisted fixed and floating rate preference shares to FirstRand Bank Limited (acting through its Rand Merchant Bank division) and another local financial institution (in aggregate amounting to ZAR1,479,444,000), between June 2017 and October 2018, under the RMH Treasury Company Limited ZAR15,000,000,000 Domestic Medium Term Note and Preference Share Programme;
  • the issue of unlisted fixed, floating and mixed rate preference shares to various local financial institutions (in aggregate amounting to ZAR10,644,000,000), between February 2017 and October 2019, under the RMI Treasury Company Limited ZAR15,000,000,000 Domestic Medium Term Note and Preference Share Programme;
  • the raising of ZAR18,000,000,000 in debt and preference share funding by Steinhoff Africa Retail Limited (now Pepkor Holdings Limited) and its subsidiaries (2018);
  • the issue of unlisted floating rate notes to a local financial institution (in aggregate amounting to ZAR2,840,000,000), in February 2017, under the RMI Treasury Company Limited ZAR15,000,000,000 Domestic Medium Term Note and Preference Share Programme;
  • Retailability Proprietary Limited's acquisition of Edcon's "Legit" business comprising of 217 retail stores across 6 countries including South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana and Zambia – circa ZAR637,000,000 (2017); and
  • Liquid Telecoms acquisition of Neotel – circa ZAR6,55 billion (2016).

Christelle has also been extensively involved in legal due diligence investigations for both local and international clients in the mining, telecommunications, construction, engineering, retail, food and beverage sectors.

Education

  • BA Law (cum laude), University of Johannesburg
  • LLB (cum laude), University of Johannesburg
  • LLM in Commercial Law (cum laude), University of Johannesburg
  • Certificate of Competence in Advanced Company Law I (with distinction), University of the Witwatersrand
  • Certificate of Competence in Advanced Company Law II (with distinction), University of the Witwatersrand
  • Year of admission as an attorney and notary public: 2016
  • Registered with the Legal Practice Council